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Since my worst hair year in history (2013), changing my hair colour approx 25 times to acheive an unobtainable blonde colour, having hair like straw which snapped off and melted when I blow dryed it…. I promised to never dye my hair again and to only ever go to the hairdressers.

Well……. I just couldn’t afford it this month and spending £100 ‘s on highlights just doesn’t seem worth it when my hair grows so quickly the roots show the day after having it done! But I desperately wanted to get rid of the dark.. (and grey ssssshhh) roots which look terrible!! I was tempted to go back to dark and just be done with it, but if you’ve gone from dark to light you’ll know…. it’s kind of addictive and if I went dark and regretted it, it’s no easy transistion to go back to blonde again!

I popped off to the shops, nervous but excited. I had decided to go for a light brown colour or ‘Natural Medium Blonde’ as the pack calls it. I thought if I did my roots that colour and tried to blend it through to the blonder tips I can create a ombre type affect.. or maybe just a patchy orange and blonde mess… but I was optimistic!

I had chosen to use L’Oréal’s Prodigy range in the colour Dune 8.0. I have never used this range before, I used to love and still recommend the Schwarzkopf Live range for their vivid results, however they didn’t have the shade I was after!

Off I went, after doing the recommended patch test 😉 I placed the dye all over my roots and left for 20 minutes, then for the remaining 10 minutes and spread the dye to the rest of my hair, not covering liberally as I didn’t want all the blonde to be covered. The thing I really noticed about this dye was there was no strong smell which made my eyes water and my scalp didn’t become even the teeniest bit itchy, so nervously I awaited my fate….

Now I don’t know about you but I think for £7 it doesn’t look too bad!! The highlights and roots have blended in nicely.. I won’t be a hairdresser any time soon but as long as you don’t home dye your hair 25 times a year and you don’t try and go drastically dark to light yourself, dying your hair yourself doesn’t can actually work!

I was really pleased with the product and would give it an 8/10… purely because it didn’t do what it said and covered all greys! Now I just need it cut… don’t worry I won’t be attempted that myself 😉

Have you had any home hair disasters/wins? Or do you only ever let the pros dye your hair?

Like this:

Now I’m going to let you into a little secret…. I hate false lashes (semi-permanent) ones! They always feel so heavy and look spidery (is that a real word?). After a few days they end up looking clumpy and I don’t like that i’m not supposed to use mascara because when I’m putting on my make up, eye shadow and finishing powder get on them and they look dull and not dramatically black like I want them!

So when the Nouvea Beauty Group said they needed models.. of course I was going to say yes because although I don’t like them… I really want to and wonder if it’s just because the previous extensions i’ve had done have not been put on by the best technicians shall we say? Or maybe the technique used wasn’t great… or maybe I just wasn’t looking after them properly? Once I ended up pulling them all out because they were driving me so mad and poking me in the eye, which resulted in me pulling my own eyelashes out too…. not cool!

What Are Russian Volume Lashes?

This technique was very popular in Russia and is now making a breakthrough in Europe and the US.

‘Russian Volume Lashes consist of applying multiple lash extensions to each natural eyelash in a fanned shape. This can result in having 200- 500 eyelash extensions applied to each eye, rather than the regular 80-100 extensions per eye with the classic 1:1 eyelash extensions. The extensions used are even lighter, and finer than Siberian Mink Eyelash extensions, which means multiple lashes can be applied without damaging the lash, looking “clumpy”, or feeling too heavy and unnatural. When multiple volume lashes are applied, they create a full and natural feather-effect look. 2D = approximately 200 lashes per eye, 3D = approximately 300 lashes per eye this can continue upto 5D. This technique can be done up to 8D, but anything over 5 D can be quite over dramatic.’

These lashes are meant to be in filled or removed two weeks after the treatment.

What Did I Think?

The thing I found interesting was that you had to keep your eyes open for this technique, unlike individual lashes where they tape down your bottom lashes and you have to close your eyes (I didn’t like this). It felt a lot more relaxing having this technique done! When the lady had finished applying them and showed me the results I was really happy! I asked for them to not be longer than my normal lashes, I just wanted added volume, which she achieved! Obviously if these were for a special occasion you could choose to have them longer and even more fuller! They didn’t feel heavy at all and none of the strands poked me in the eye!

Would I Recommend Them?

Yes! I would recommend this technique over individual lash extensions any day! (If you’re not sure what individual lashes are this is where one false lash Is stuck to one of your real lashes.) I’m still not a huge fan of semi-permanent lashes and will stick to a good mascara and disposable lashes, but if I was going to get them done again, I would go for this technique!

Have you ever had these done before? What did you think of them? Have you had any other technique? Do you love/hate them?

As you guys may or may not know I recently had a lip blush tattoo done (crazy I know) and I promised an update on my results! To read the blog post on the procedure, click here.

So it’s 10 days on! First off I want to talk about the healing process so far! As you can see in the picture taken 5 minutes after leaving the clinic, they were swollen, numb and very red and I was so relieved the whole ordeal was over!!

The following day the numbness had subsided but they still felt very tingly, as If I had pins and needles in my lips… so weird! They also begun to scab over the next day, mostly around the outer line! All I can say is thank goodness I had a week off work! If you have this treatment done I would really advise staying out of the way of the public as it’s not pretty, unless of course you like being stared at strangely ofcourse!

Now i’m really kicking myself because I thought I took a picture 3 days after showing you some lovely scabby lips… nice! But I can’t find it, grrr! So day 3/4 the scabs covered the whole of the lips, not as much as the outer line but still very scabby! They looked sore as anything but they really weren’t! The swelling had gone down and the pins and needles feeling had lessened. It was so hard to not pick the scabs.. seriously hard!

By day 5 the scabs had gone, I was able to give the hubby a big smooch (sorry) but the colour had reeeeally faded! I was told it would fade by 70% and boy they weren’t lying! They now look a more pinky colour, the outline is fab! I love how the shape of my lips are way more defined now! I only had the treatment done to define my lips but if you want to change the shape of them this treatment works wonders!!

So now it’s 10 days on and the colour is changing everyday! The therapists did say that they can take a month to really show their real colour, very strange but it’s true, it looks different every day! I am still using the healing balm as my lips seem to be quite dry still and this works amazingly and just looks like a nice lip gloss, I wish it smelt nicer though!!

So there you have it! 10 days on and i’m really pleased, I wish the colour was darker but i’ll do another update 1 month on and tell you if the colour has changed again!

I really recommend this treatment, it’s so much more natural then fillers, my tips would be, choose a dark/ bright colour and expect some pain.. it’s bearable though! 🙂

So today I had my first experience of a tattoo…. on my eye lids!!! What was I thinking?? Ok it wasn’t that bad, no wait it was..In fact I’m trying very hard to not stick this caramel magnum I’m eating currently on my eyes because I think it would be really soothing… slightly strange if someone was to see me doing it but that’s fine because I think it would feel sooo good!

I had recently signed up to be a model at my local permanent make up training centre and only the week after doing so they called me to see if I’d be interested in having an eyeliner treatment done…obviously I said yes because I was intrigued and I love free things! My appointment was at 10.30am and I walked upstairs to the training centre to be greeted by the staff and given a 10 page document signing my life away and promising not to sue these people if I become blind or poked in the eye with a needle… yes a needle!! Now call me naïve or plain stupid but I have to be honest I didn’t realise they use the same implement that is used to do general tattooing!

So I picked my colour, there was quite a selection actually, I went for ‘almost grey’, it was a kind of dark grey/black colour, she explained the pigment is 50% darker when the treatment is first done and over time it would fade. You also get to choose whether you’d prefer a liquid eyeliner look or a pencil style, I went for liquid. It was explained to me as this was a bronze level course the look they were practicing was a basic ‘lash enhancer’ just a fine line on the top and bottom.. oh and this was their first time using the tattoo pen…. ever!!! They start with placing the numbing cream on your upper and lower eyelids, the fumes were quite strong and made my eyes water a little but nothing I couldn’t handle. Next they placed a pencil line on my bottom lids, to make a guide… then the pen comes out! The pen used had 3 tiny needles, between the trainer and the student they both scratched my eyelid to break the skin and added pigment to the area…. ouch! The numbing cream worked for like 10 minutes, they did re apply it but by the end of the procedure my eyes were sore and I really felt it :(! It was nearing the end and then they cracked out the 1 needle piece for the pen…..oh. no. I felt that! Am I selling this to you yet? 😉 So here’s the end result..

This was a few hours after… no eye make up allowed on for four days!!! Not amused!! I’m happy with the result, the whole traumatic procedure lasted 2 hours but I must admit I was quite worried when the student doing my procedure was starting to get obviously stressed by the pressure and after thanking me afterwards she apologised for coming across a bit nervous and said she was just very aware of how some serious damage could be done if she were to make a wrong move…. I’m glad she said that after the treatment!! I felt like saying and maybe I should have said, if your not confident, fake it! Because at least if you pretend to be confident and act like you’re not nervous even when your really scared inside it will put your client at ease, I wasn’t nervous until she said to the trainer ‘I’m having trouble seeing the needle to see if I’m in deep enough’ can you imagine my face, well I couldn’t change my facial expression as she was stretching the skin around my eyes and had a needle very close to my iris but If I could.. it would look similar to this expression..

Right, time to put my soothing balm on (which smells lovely) and get some beauty sleep, they actually look more swollen hours afterwards, but aren’t too sore, just very sensitive! Am I going to go back for my top up in 6 weeks…. what do you think?